Stream Netflix movies to an Xbox 360 with vmcNetflix add-in

by Daniel Langendorf

June 25th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

vmcNetflixIt’s been long rumored that Netflix may be coming to gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, you still have to wait for that to officially happen. Fortunately, at least for a few Xbox 360 owners, there is a work-around.

Lifehacker provides instruction on how to turn an Xbox 360 into a streaming Netflix player — as long as you meet a few requirements.

One: You own an Xbox 360.

Two: You have a Netflix subscription.

Three: You use Microsoft Vista with the Vista Media Center, included by default in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions.

Four: You download and install the freeware plug-in vmcNetflix, an add-in for Vista Media Center. You can find it here with instructions. Continue reading »

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NBC Olympics on the Go will allow (some) fans to download events to watch on their computers

by Daniel Langendorf

June 24th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments7 Comments

olympics homeIt seemed so promising: NBC, the sole U.S. broadcaster for the 2008 Summer Olympics Games in Beijing, will allow consumers to download any event to watch on their personal computers for free.

That’s any event.

On their personal computers.

For free.

Then reality sets in and you discover it’s too good to be true. “NBC Olympics on the Go” will only be available for the Microsoft Vista operating system and then in just two flavors — Home Premium and Ultimate. This means millions of XP users, not to mention Mac and Linux folks, will be left on the sideline, so to speak.

These Olympic Games are going to be the most ambitious single media project in history, with NBC saturating the airwaves and Internet cloud with 3,600 hours of coverage from Aug. 8-24. Continue reading »

Nokia buys Symbian, opens fire on Android, Windows Mobile and iPhone

by Steve O'Hear

June 24th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

Nokia buys Symbian, opens fire on Android, Windows Mobile and iPhoneThe boldest moves are made from a position of strength, not when the chips are down and you’ve very little to lose. Nokia’s decision, announced today, to acquire the remaining 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn’t already own and make the mobile platform open source, is bold to say the least.

Symbian unified platform: UIQ, S60The ambition, says Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, is to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications.”

To achieve this, Nokia will join other industry players, initially AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, to form the non-profit Symbian Foundation, although any company can join.

Together the foundation will unify the Symbian OS with its various competing User Interface layers – primarily Nokia’s S60 and Motorola and Sony Ericsson’s UIQ – into a single open platform for “converged mobile devices”. The new foundation, in which Nokia has the biggest seat since it will swallow up all of Symbian’s current employees, will oversee the process of releasing the new OS under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0 open source license – a transition that will take two years – and become its long-term custodian. Continue reading »

Win a Roku Netflix set-top box!

by Steve O'Hear

June 24th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV, Other | Comments1 Comment

Win a Roku Netflix set-top-box!This isn’t a last100 give-away — we haven’t even got our hands on a review unit yet — but our friend Dan Rayburn over at Streaming Media is parting company with the new Netflix set-top box from Roku.

Also see: Roku delivers first Netflix set-top box

To be in with a chance to win it, all you have to do is leave one comment on Dan’s original post with a working e-mail address. He’ll pick a random winner this Thursday and ship it out at no cost. (Sorry, U.S. residents only). The unit comes with all of the original materials, box, remote and cables, but since it only works with Netflix’s service, you’ll either need to be a Netflix customer, or need to be willing to setup a Netflix account.

As an aside, Anthony Wood, the Founder and CEO of Roku will be one of the keynote speakers at the Streaming Media West show in September in San Jose.

Stream or download more than 200 tennis matches through Wimbledon Live

by Daniel Langendorf

June 23rd, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments6 Comments

wimbledon logoAs all tennis buffs know, Wimbledon 2008 started today. And as all tennis buffs know, finding matches to watch live that are not top seeds can be difficult. Tourament organizers know this, and that’s why they’ve introduced the Wimbledon Live service.

For a flat fee of $24.99 (approx. £12.65) tennis fans can stream live matches to their PCs (Mac and Linux are not supported) or download up to 250 matches in the .wmv format after the match is complete. It’s a great way to catch matches that may, or may not, be broadcast on the TSN and NBC networks.

If you only care to watch a particular matchup (schedule), a day pass is also available for $9.99 (FAQ). Dale Dietrich of The Daleisphere has a nice rundown of Wimbledon Live.

Here’s the essentials:

Continue reading »

Nokia purchases Plazes, a location-based social networking service

by Daniel Langendorf

June 23rd, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments1 Comment

plazes logoBuried in Bob Iannucci’s discussion at Supernova 2008 last week was this comment: “Connecting people only through voice communications is limited,” the Nokia chief technical officer said.

To me, that sums up everything Nokia is doing, including today’s announcement. Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer, is purchasing Plazes, the location-based social networking service that’s based in Berlin with all of 13 employees.

Plazes, founded in 2005, lets people alert their friends about what they are doing and where they are — sort of Twitter and Loopt rolled into one. Users can subscribe to their friends, a group of friends, or to specific locations known as “Plazes.”

Updates can be done via plazes.com, by mobile phone and text messaging, or by a number of third-party applications using the Plazes’ API. And, we can expect, Plazes will be on millions of Nokia phones worldwide as soon as possible.

nokia logo“Nokia is a perfect partner for us because they share our product vision and have the muscle to bring locative presence to hundreds of millions of people all over the world,” the Plazes team writes on its blog. “What better partner than Nokia for exploring innovative ways of connecting people?”

With Plazes and other recent acquisitions, Nokia is clearly connecting people through location-based services, maps, music communities, gaming, and — almost forgot — voice. Continue reading »

No surprise, Gphone reportedly delayed

by Steve O'Hear

June 23rd, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

According to the Wall Street Journal, mobile phones powered by the Google-led Android platform – the so-called GPhone – are unlikely to see the light of day until the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest or, more likely, early next year. Perhaps not all that surprising considering that Google elected not to build its own hardware, and instead is working with over 30 partners to bring Android-based handsets to market.

The reasons given for the delay are plenty:

  • The operating system is still a ‘work in progress’, with the various partners continually lobbying for additional features. “This is where the pain happens,” says Android chief Andy Rubin.
  • Carriers need time to customize Android with their own branded services and User Interface, rather than sticking with Google’s own suite of applications.
  • At the same time, developers are complaining that it’s difficult to write for Android since Google has yet to lock down its own development.
  • China Mobile is said to be having trouble translating the Android software from Roman characters into Chinese.
  • Additionally, it’s claimed that, in a push to help T-Mobile deliver on its promise of getting an Android-powered phone out the door before the year is up, Google has been unable to provide the needed resources to competing networks.

All of the above paints a pretty bumpy road ahead for the GPhone, at least in the short term. Continue reading »

Podcast: RWW Live episode 2 (3G iPhone and more)

by Steve O'Hear

June 21st, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Other | CommentsNo Comments

Last month ReadWriteTalk (a regular podcast in which the show’s host Sean Ammirati talks to “The People Behind The Web”) launched a new bi-weekly feature called RWW Live. The idea is to get together a number of writers from the ReadWriteWeb blog network (that includes last100!) for a live discussion on recent events in the technology world.

In episode two, I join Richard MacManus, editor and founder of ReadWriteWeb, Charles Knight from Alt Search Engines, and ReadWriteTalk host, Sean Ammirati, to discuss a number of big events over the last week including:

  • 3G iPhone
  • New Approaches by the Alternative Search Engines & a plug by Charles for his new favorite Alt Search Engine – Tag Galaxy
  • The Future of Yahoo!

You can listen to the whole show here.

Weekly wrapup, 16-20 June 2008 (Supernova edition)

by Steve O'Hear

June 21st, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | Comments1 Comment

Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

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Supernova coverage

Last100’s Dan Langendorf reported from the Supernova conference in San Francisco this week.

@Supernova: Getting a glimpse of mobile’s future without the iPhone and Android

First up, Dan picked up on one theme in the Mobile space that is likely to become increasingly important: mobile sensors. He writes, “What’s coming is life profound. Put billions of sensors in cell phones – regardless of hardware, operating system, or carrier – and affect the way we understand traffic or the weather.”

@Supernova: Evidence developers are just as interested in Blackberry as they are iPhone, Android

Despite Apple’s iPhone and the upcoming Google-led Android platform grabbing all the hype, developer interest in RIM’s Blackberry was on show at Supernova, largely because of its established user base. “There used to be a saying that nobody was going to be fired for buying IBM, at least in software,” said Peter Nofelt, one of the developers of the zombie-themed, social game MobileDead. “It’s the same thing for the Blackberry”. Continue reading »

Hulu update: Days of Summer, adding more viewers, Stewart and Colbert

by Daniel Langendorf

June 20th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments1 Comment

hulu days of summerThere is a reason they call it the dog days of summer. It’s hot. TV is all repeats. Except for blockbuster weekends like Memorial Day and July 4, summer movie releases can be pretty bad. The kids, off school, even get bored watching YouTube.

Hulu, the increasingly popular online video venture brought to you by NBC and Fox, is fighting the dog days of summer with Hulu Days of Summer, introduced this week. From now until mid-August, Hulu will release a “premiere” program each weekday, hoping to entice viewers to drop by to see what’s new. Continue reading »

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